Nine teen girls escaped state custody, DCS says

Three still on the run

Jun. 27, 2013

Written by

The Tennessean

Nine teenage girls slipped from state custody early Wednesday morning after overpowering an employee at a Department of Children’s Services facility in Donelson, an official confirmed.

Six had been apprehended less than three hours later, and three remained on the run Wednesday.

Police said the girls escaped from G4S Academy for Young Women on Stewarts Ferry Pike at about 1:45 a.m.

An employee at the academy found the girls walking along Interstate 40 soon after their escape, but two of the girls assaulted that employee, police said. The girls tried to steal the employee’s vehicle, but she got away. There were no serious injuries.

The six that were caught were charged at Juvenile Court with escape, curfew violation and evading arrest, police said. Two of the six additionally were charged with assault. One of the six also was charged with theft.

The academy, which is on the Clover Bottom Development Center’s campus, is run for DCS by G4S, a private, for-profit company that also operates the Davidson County Juvenile Detention Center and many other facilities across the country.

“This is a private provider of ours, and these are DCS kids,” DCS spokesman Rob Johnson said.

The academy is a 24-bed residential program for teenage girls.

“This is a facility that’s designed for treatment,” he said. “This is not a facility that has razor wire and heavy-duty locks.”

This is the second time in a year that teens have escaped from the academy, according to police records.

Johnson said the agency would review the policies in place at the G4S Academy for Young Women in light of the escape.